A Halloween Tale: Houdini's Lonely Grave

I’ve long been fascinated by, and even somewhat drawn to, the grave of Harry Houdini, in the run-down Machpelah Cemetery, just off the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Ridgewood, Queens.

I stop by to check on the grave whenever I’m in the area with some spare time. The grave lies directly inside the gates, next to a daunting, abandoned building that was once the cemetery office. I’ve never found the gates locked, even though the cemetery always seemed utterly deserted and forgotten. The dilapidated building has open doors and windows and the inside is ransacked and dark and spooky, with old cemetery records scattered around.
Many of the grave sites are overgrown, and many headstones are in disrepair or toppled or covered in ivy. Houdini’s grave was always in decent shape, as if someone came and landscaped it occasionally and left various mementos on the gravestone: decks of cards, rocks, coins, keys, a witch’s broom, and other objects.

This week, there was a crude broom on the gravestone, a few rain-spattered playing cards, some keys and coins and stones.

Turns out, someone does come and shape up the grave once in a while. The New York chapter of the Society of American Magicians has a Houdini Gravesite Committee, and a Brooklyn man named George Schindler is the committee chairman. He said that the bust of Houdini that once adorned the grave site was often vandalized and is now kept in storage by the committee, whose members bring landscaping tools to the cemetery and tidy up the grave site several times a year.

“Houdini paid for perpetual care, but there’s nobody at the cemetery to provide it,” he said, adding that the operator of the cemetery, David Jacobson, “sends us a bill for upkeep every year but we never pay it because he never provides any care.”

Mr. Schindler said that the group used to conduct a ceremony every Halloween at the site — Houdini died on Halloween in 1926 — but now holds it in November, when Houdini’s death date appears on the Jewish calendar.

“The crowds were just getting too big — we had to start having a police escort — so we changed the date,” he said. “Since Houdini died on Halloween, the grave site became too attractive to vandals and people who wanted to party there.” Now the site is watched closely by the police on Halloween, he said.

An official at a nearby cemetery provided a phone number for Mr. Jacobson, who sounded annoyed when he answered the phone on Wednesday to be asked by another reporter calling near Halloween about the Houdini grave site.

After haggling a bit about the condition of the cemetery (“What makes you think it’s in disrepair?”), he hung up the phone. I called back and he hung up again, for good measure.

Between 1966 & 1968, I was a home delivery boy for the long defunct Long Island Press newspaper. My route covered the area immediately adjacent to the cemetery, and at that time, the caretaker was a subscriber to the paper. I had to deviate from my route to deliver that one newspaper and it was a long, desolate (and for a 12 year old, somewhat scary) quarter mile detour.

During those years, the crowds that gathered on Halloween were huge, and I was told by one of the revelers that the reason for the gathering was that Houdini had promised, before his death, that he would rise from the dead on Halloween, which would be his greatest escape. I’m sure that the story is just lore, but I was fascinated by it.

The crowds were quite large and raucous, and the 3 Halloween’s of my youth when I delivered the paper there are great memories.

One note – Houdini’s grave and the caretaker’s house are actually in Glendale – not Ridgewood (although the cemetary does extend into Ridgewood in its westermost boundary)

See the great book, “Here Lies America.” It has a fantastic picture of Houdini’s grave (and many others who contributed in various ways to American culture and life). The photo was taken on a day the authors could not get into the cemetary and in the foreground is a strong lock of the type that Houdini might have used inhis famous stunts.

If perpetual care was purchased then it is likely that no annual bill for care is appropriate; none should be sent or paid .

Many cemetery operators seem to be dishonest.

The money paid for perpetual care, and certain other assets, including the land, which is free from taxation, have some of the characteristics of a trust for the benefit of those interred there and their descendants.

Regrettably, these niceties are often ignored in the pursuit of “progress”, and profit.

The state attorney general–when motivated to protect the public, as Mr. Cuomo appears to be–can be of great help.

K. (No. 3), I’d ask the same question. I know from what a cemetery employee told me several years ago that some of the plots in Machpelah were obtained from what she described as the “Joseph Brothers Society”, and I believe there was still a secretary, keeping the records for the Society — most of them in German. Perhaps if the Society is still in existence, they might be able to help. Or perhaps they, too, have fallen on hard times.

This cemetery, while a bit dilapidated and overgrown, is most definitely not deserted. In view of the “Weiss” grave site stands a mausoleum with the family name of Levine. Just last year another family member of mine was interned there (the unveiling is next week). Whenever we find reason to go there we always get a kick out of “visiting” the great Houdini.

I just read the article. Made some calls. According to the NY State cemetery Division, there never was a perpetual care contract with the cemetery. David Copperfield gave the American Association of Magicians a large sum of money to hold for the care. They have never paid the cemetery. I wonder if Copperfield knows. The cemetery is cut no less than 6 times during the warm months of the year according to workers in nereby cemeteries. I also found out that people use this cemetery and many others in the area as a dump. The cemetery cleans up the mess every few weeks. I saw the Houdi graves last week. They were overgrown and everything around it was cut and clean. I also found out that the cemetery was bankrupt and had no staff when Jacobson was asked by the State to come in and run it. Also, there is an article that descibes Jacobson as the person who stopped the Holloween ceremony at Houdini’s grave which stopped the desecrations of the monuments in the cemetery. He allows tham to have the ceremony on the Jewish date of death on the lunar (Jewish) calendar.I think it’s sad that he is not given credit for saving the cemetery and that the magicians are taken to task for what they’ve done with the money.

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.